Argentina's Disco expands products

[buenos aires] Argentina's No. 3 supermarket chain Disco, a unit of Dutch retail giant Ahold, is expanding a new own-label range of low-priced products to retain customers in the economically devastated country. Disco introduced the Suli brand late last year with 35 products at discounts of 25% to 30% to standard brands and aims to have as many as 300 products by the end of 2003, said Juan Ignacio Simo, store brands manager. Disco is backing Suli with heavy in-store advertising by WPP's Young & Rubicam Argentina. No media advertising for the brand has been planned yet, he said. He expects Suli's share of Disco's total sales to rise from 1% now to 4.5% by December as demand grows from cash-strapped consumers facing 40% inflation and a tough job market. Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever have introduced their own lower-priced brands.